Purdue University
School of Civil Engineering
CE 361 Introduction to Transportation Engineering

Test 1 (7 questions on 6 pages)

Tues. 1 October 1996; 8:30-9:30 PM; Room 172 WTHR
OPEN BOOK AND NOTES

For each question, show enough of your work or provide sufficient explanation to allow the grader to follow your solution process and, in the case of an incorrect answer, award partial credit.

  1. Keep America Moving. Superior Products, Inc., a major employer in the Mythaca area, is threatening to move its operations to a city in another state. SPI cites deteriorating transportation infrastructure and services as a major factor in the decision to leave Mythaca. A meeting of major stakeholders in Mythaca was convened. The result was a decision to hire you as a consultant to document the nature and extent of the transportation problems in the Mythaca area.

  2. Highway Capacity and Level of Service. SR361 east of Mythaca is a 2-lane rural road through rolling terrain. For most of its 10-mile length from Mythaca to Eastpoint, it has the following characteristics: 12-foot lanes, 3-foot shoulders, and 15 percent no passing zones. Peak period flow = 410 vph with a 60/40 directional distribution and 2% RV, 1% bus, 18% trucks.

  3. (12 points) Queueing in "real life". You (and several thousand other music lovers) are driving to the Vulgaris concert at Fawn Creek Music Center just off I-24 north of Mythaca. Heavy traffic on the offramp from I-24 to the county roads leading to FCMC are causing a backup onto I-24. Describe how you would try to estimate the value of "mu" for this offramp as a queueing system without leaving your car, which is stuck in the offramp traffic. Use hypothetical but plausible numbers to clearly demonstrate your method.

  4. (12 points) Potpourri. What is a contraflow lane? Give an example.

  5. MNL Mode Choice Model. A group of teachers in the Mythaca School District have agreed to stop commuting by motor vehicle. Instead, each of these teachers will choose each morning between walking and bicycling to school, depending on the weather. The utility functions for the two non-motorized modes for these teachers are:
    U(bike) = 0.0 - 0.5*t(bike) - c(3)*W(bike);
    U(walk) = +2.9 - 0.5*t(walk)
    where W is a weather-related variable and t is travel time in minutes. W=0 in good weather; W=1 in bad weather.
  6. Trip Assignment. One the big events in Mythaca County each year is the Murdock Bay Regatta, which takes place in and around Shoridan. Immediately after the last Regatta event, however, thousands of vehicles leave Shoridan and head inland to (and through) Mythaca. There are five possible routes from Shoridan to Mythaca. The link performance functions for these five routes are:
    t(1) = 18 + 4.5*x(1);
    t(2) = 21 + 7.0*x(2);
    t(3) = 26 + 4.9*x(3);
    t(4) = 29 + 3.4*x(4);
    t(5) = 34 + 0.3*x(5)
    where t is in minutes and x is in 10^3 vph.
  7. Evaluation of alternatives. Refer to the alternatives in Table 3, SNotes 4.2.3 and use Percentiles to convert an alternative's Measure of Merit (MoM) into an index for any particular factor.



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